The article describes Felton's tough stance on discipline and the University's tough stance on academics while pointing out that he hasn't done a very good job of signing players who would fit into either environment.
And that is my biggest beef.
It's ok to be an insufferable hard ass IF you know how to identify and sign players that can thrive in that environment. Sundiata Gaines is a guy tailor made for that world. Gaines tells ESPN:
"I believe he has the program headed in the right direction, but he has to have the players behind him to get going in that direction," Gaines said. "We definitely had good players, but we didn't have the right players with the right character. He didn't have players from the right backgrounds to go through this. It's hard to lose somebody every year. Unfortunately, he's just been dealt a bad deck of players."(emphasis added)Regarding the suspensions, the article says publicly what many people have suspected which is that Takais Brown was allegedly suspended for "failing drug tests." (notice the "s" in that phrase). The article also correctly points out that Mike Mercer was not dismissed for academics. He was dismissed for "being a disruption to the team." That is Dennis Felton's exact quote.
I fully supported the decision to boot Mercer. And I still do. But, that's a topic for another date.
My beef with Schlabach's article is that he also points to UGA's tough academic standards as why UGA is "too hard" of a place to win. A point he makes by quoting an unnamed coach...who I'm sure recruits against us and would never want us to land a successful coach here.
Georgia having more lax academic standards would NOT have saved Mike Mercer or Takais Brown from suspension, or this team from March Sadness.
Mike Mercer had a catastrophic knee injury in Feb. of last year. He was still visibly limping at the time of his dismissal in late November prior to his suspension. Even if you throw out the 15 game suspension for basically being a jerk and not going to study hall nine times, he still probably needed until Jan. to get his knee and body back into game shape. In other words, we still don't have him for the RPI, hope and credibility killing losses to ETSU and Tulane in Hawaii.
And even without the knee injury, he and Felton still would have needed to find a way to make Mercer fear or respect him enough to follow *Felton's* rules. Dennis Felton felt that Mike Mercer was "being a disruption" and he dismissed him. That's a fact everyone seems to agree on. Yet, UGA is a hard place to win because we expect a lot in the classroom? Puhlease.
Takais Brown was also not expelled for academics according to ESPN. According to their publication, he was booted for failing drug tests. How is Damon's academic policy killing Felton, if a kid fails a drug test? That doesn't even begin to make sense.
At the end of the day, Felton is where Felton is because of:
- Wretched luck
- Inadequate recruiting
- Complete lack of an offense
I don't know what Damon is going to do, and I don't envy him.
See Also:
-- What's the real priority - Sportsline.com
PWD
(PS -- Wins matter, too.)
5 comments:
The programs at Duke, UNC, etc. don't seem to be suffering too badly due to "academic standards"...
Anyone watching us play the last five years would recognize that Felton's offense is incapable of generating open looks. When we score, we tend to do it in transition and on the fast break. Better players basically means better shooters, but those better shooters will still be stuck in a system that can't get them opportunities to shoot.
Watching Felton's offense awkward and ineffective --kind of like watching two virgins get it on.
Very good blog. I still think Felton deserves another chance, but I agree he needs to get this offense working and start winning on the road. Felton has done some good things with the program - cleaning it up and he's one of the better defensive coaches in the SEC, in my opinion - but you can't win if you can't score. All the same, I want to give him one more year. If he falls flat one more season, all doubt that he needs to go will be wiped out of my mind.
Isn't next year the last year on Felton's contract? You can't have a lame duck coach in basketball. No recruit would want to play for him for 1 year. Every coach will use that against any of our recruits this and next year. UGA needs to either give him an extension or go another path. I for one see that he has 5 years and the improvement is marginal. Sure, he has had a lot of bad luck, but coaches as well as every human being have to be responsible and overcome it. I just keep thinking that if we go with a new, hungry young coach we can't do much worse but we could do much better.
Isn't the "Felton Way" the same thing as the Max Power Way?
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